The U.S. military said Friday that the Marine jet that brought down a cable car full of skiers was flying "well below" the approved altitude. An Italian prosecutor said the military had handed over a record of flight data.
Four days after 20 people plunged to their deaths in the Dolomites, friction built between Italian and U.S. authorities over the plane's course, altitude and so-called "black box."The U.S. military has said the plane carried no voice or flight data recorder, and the precise nature of the device that allegedly was handed over to Italian investigators was not immediately clear.
Francantino Granero, the Italian prosecutor investigating the accident, said a U.S. technician had told authorities that a recording device had been removed from the plane.
Granero said he was told the pilot removed the device when he returned to base on Tuesday after the fatal flight. But the Italian prosecutor said he was told that some of the data might be missing.
Authorities at the plane's base at Aviano issued a statement Friday saying the Marine EA-6B Prowler was "well below the approved minium altitude" when it severed the cable at the ski area near Trento, about 90 miles east of Milan.
It also said the ski lift was within the plane's flight path, a corridor 10 nautical miles wide.
Statistics show that an average of 31 civilians are killed each year in U.S. military accidents worldwide, but a single incident as deadly as the ski lift disaster is rare.
The military's overall air safety record has improved in recent years.